Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Brunch with dear friends and family in San Francisco. How perfect is that?

I love San Francisco! I took a mini-break last weekend to visit friends, eat, and enjoy the sights. In that order. I heart visiting SF, but I'm such a Southern Cal girl I would get SAD with SF's often raining and foggy weather. Can you imagine me in the snow? No. I just can't.

On Saturday (Day 1), Sumi, my old RA from UCLA dorms (we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary soon! Oh my!) cooked up an amazing brunch! Here are some pics of our brunch...

Another former UCLA roomie, Diane and I made the fruit salad with lots of organic fruits. Sumi recently purchased a mandolin from Sur la Table and I made perfectly equal sized potatoes for potatoes with caramelized onions. Above, those are the beautiful Peruvian purple potatoes!

Cousin Stan and David picked up a lovely assortment of deliciousness from La Farine French Bakery in Oakland, California. This is their famous morning bun. Sooooo delicious.

We made fresh buttermilk waffles as well as bacon. This fruit tart with mango is from La Farine. Everything was delicious!

Here is an easy recipe you should make as your guests are walking in the door...

We ended the meal with some oh-so-good, makes you weak-in-the-knees ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission. Salted caramel, vanilla and balsamic strawberry. I topped my ice cream and brownie with some burnt caramel sauce.

This is Sumi's newest purchase. Isn't this the most beautiful chair? I love it!

After all that food, I took my regular weekend nap. What would a vacation be without one?! For dinner, we grilled some fresh shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, potatoes, onions and, yes, even more bacon. See my flickr San Francisco 2009 Set for the final product.

Next up...my day eating through Berkeley and Oakland, and back to SF for the wonderful House of Prime Rib!